BestMile Seed Round Reaches $5.5M with the Addition of $2M from
Partech Ventures, Serena Capital and Airbus Ventures, Company Also
Appoints a New Chief Technology Officer.

April 13, 2017 03:30 AM Eastern Daylight Time

SAN FRANCISCO & LAUSANNE, Switzerland--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--BestMile,
a pioneer provider of the first fleet automation platform allowing for
the intelligent operation and optimization of autonomous vehicle fleets,
announces the addition of Partech Venture, Serena Capital and Airbus
Venture to its capital to further pursue its vision for autonomous and
shared mobility. The additional funds will be used to accelerate the
deployment of BestMile’s platform internationally and strengthen its
technology, sales and marketing resources across Europe and the United
States. Reza Malekzadeh and Jean-Baptiste Dumont, General Partners at
Partech Venture and Serena Capital respectively, are also joining
BestMile’s Board of Directors to bring their estimable insights and
experience as the company continues its rapid growth.

“BestMile delivers an enabling platform that is essential for the
deployment of this industry”

“The additional funding will help us further our goal of delivering the
best mobility management platform to a fast-growing industry,” said
Raphael Gindrat, CEO and co-founder of BestMile. “We are thrilled to
have new partners, who share our vision, joining us in the journey and
contributing their unique experiences to our mission.”

In parallel, a new Chief Technology Officer has joined BestMile’s
executive team to lead the company’s engineering efforts. Zhao Lu has
worked in research and development for large organizations like IBM as
well as for Silicon Valley’s startups. Most importantly, he led the
development and deployment of one of the world’s leading taxi platform,
Easy Taxi, available in 30 countries and used by more than 20 million
people.

BestMile’s ongoing growth is driven by a strong commitment to empowers
mobility providers to deliver efficient, flexible and sustainable
services. Its platform enables autonomous vehicles to work together as a
fleet and allows mobility providers to deploy, operate and scale
autonomous mobility services.

Since its launch in 2014, BestMile has built a proven track record as
the leading company for fleet automation in the autonomous mobility
industry with customers and partners such as PostBus, Switzerland’s
largest provider of road public transportation, Local Motors, Trapeze
and GoMentum Station, US largest testing ground for autonomous vehicles.
BestMile was the first company to offer on-demand autonomous mobility
services and enables the first instances in which electric autonomous
shuttles are circulating through a city center, on both pedestrian areas
and open roads, and servicing the public on a daily basis.

While most players in the industry have a vehicle centric approach, the
benefits of autonomous mobility don’t lie in autonomous vehicles
themselves, but in what they can offer when they’re operated and managed
collectively in an integrated ecosystem such as the one enabled by
BestMile.

“Fleet management is rapidly becoming essential to optimizing the
mobility system and we are convinced by BestMile’s approach focusing on
building an ecosystem and remaining vehicle agnostic,” said Matthieu
Repellin, Investment Partner at Airbus Ventures. “We’re delighted to
co-invest with funds such as Partech Ventures and Serena Capital to help
accelerate BestMile’s growth as it brings massive value to its market”.

“We’re thrilled to back such a strategic company for the whole
Autonomous Vehicles industry”, said Jean-Baptiste Dumont, General
Partner at Serena Capital. “BestMile is the missing link between
manufacturers and mobility providers, allowing them to scale the
deployment of their fleets by using a centralized platform connecting
vehicles and coordinating and optimizing journeys”.

The company’s work has recently received the New Product Innovation
Award from analyst firm, Frost & Sullivan. As stated in the Award
write-up: “Autonomous vehicles are seen as the future of the mobility
industry and the company provides the strategic link between autonomous
vehicle fleet owners and passengers. Frost & Sullivan firmly believes
that with its robust expansion plans along with a significant
technological lead and comprehensive understanding of market mobility
needs of developed and emerging markets, BestMile will be instrumental
in building a new mobility paradigm”.

“Autonomous vehicles are no longer the realm of science fiction; they
are already on the roads and represent one of the biggest changes to
mobility,” said Reza Malekzadeh, General Partner at Partech Ventures.
“BestMile delivers an enabling platform that is essential for the
deployment of this industry”.

About BestMile

BestMile is a technology company providing distributed and highly
scalable cloud technology leveraging the full potential of autonomous
vehicles to tackle global mobility challenges. With offices in San
Francisco (USA), Lausanne (Switzerland) and London (UK), BestMile
commercializes the first fleet automation platform allowing for the
intelligent operation and optimization of autonomous vehicle fleets,
regardless of their brand or type and managing both fixed-route and
on-demand service types.

Since its creation in 2014, BestMile built a proven track record as the
leading company for fleet automation in the autonomous mobility
industry. BestMile was the first company to offer on-demand autonomous
mobility services and is now enabling the first instance in which
electric autonomous shuttles are circulating through a city center on
both pedestrian areas and open roads, and servicing the public on a
daily basis.